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Bruce Springsteen's lyrics give GOPers reason to believe

Springsteen has broad appeal because he is more descriptive than prescriptive, some say. | Reuters

Political observers have been tracking The Boss closely for decades.

“I have not got a clue about Springsteen’s politics, if any, but flags get waved at his concerts while he sings songs about hard times. He is no whiner, and the recitation of closed factories and other problems always seems punctuated by a grand, cheerful affirmation: ‘Born in the USA!’” columnist George Will wrote in a Washington Post column in 1984, before Springsteen’s political views became more well known.

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Even after Springsteen endorsed Democratic presidential nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008, conservative figures, like Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, and Christie, the New Jersey governor, remained loyal.

Pawlenty, interviewed by pop-culture website Glittarazzi in 2011, said his favorite artist was Springsteen. “I like Bruce Springsteen a lot. … If I had to do an all-time [favorite], it would have to be Bruce Springsteen,” Pawlenty said.

Asked by The New York Times in 2009 how he would react if Springsteen endorsed his Democratic opponent, Jon Corzine, over him, Christie promised he would remain a dedicated fan. “I was a fan 34 years ago. I’d be a fan afterward,” Christie, who has attended an astounding 120 concerts, said. “It is now just too much a part of my life.”

About Obama, Springsteen recently said, “I still support the president, but there are plenty of things that I thought took a long time and would have been closed by now,” according to the AFP. “There’s not as many middle-class or working-class voices heard in the administration” as he had expected.

Liberals and conservatives will find room for interpretation in the first single on the new album, “We Take Care of Our Own.”

“We take care of our own / Wherever this flag’s flown,” sings Springsteen.

That can be heard as a call for families and local communities to help those in need — a concept with deep roots in conservatism.

“This is very much a message that you hear echoed by conservatives — responsibility for one’s self and immediate family,” said Borick.

However, the song’s reference to “New Orleans / From the muscle to the bone / From the shotgun shack to the Superdome/ We yelled ‘help’ but the cavalry stayed home” draws attention to poverty and the failure of government to act to stave off disasters both unpredictable and obvious — not your typical conservative fare.

No matter, Sayet said, admitting that while there is an alternative explanation for the song, he’s going to listen to it the way he wants to hear it.

“I’m going to embrace it as it fits with my way of thinking — we do, we take care of our own, our families, our neighbors, our communities,” the conservative comedian said.

McLaughlin added, “One of the things that you’ve seen in this political moment from everybody — from the Occupy Wall Street movement to the tea party movement — is an expression [of] widespread disenchantment with our institutions, with our leaders. This album is going to be controversial, but it won’t drive away listeners who have been fans for years.”

Eric, if you are promoting Diamond and Joel over Springsteen, I just think its a difference of opinion. How you listen to the big hits, Born to Run, Born in the USA, Thunder Road, ect. and don't like the Boss, I just don't know what to say.

I guess it's a classic example of not listening to decent lyrics because you can't stand the voice. Same goes for Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. Decent song-writing... but can't get past the voices.

I'm not entirely convinced an emotional-connection because of strong lyrics should propel an otherwise mediocre musical talent. But if song-lyrics are the key for some people and it sells records, then I guess I can somewhat understand their popularity.

Meantime, Elton John, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez, the early Heart, and James Taylor all appeal to me even with their not-so-deep lyrics.

Still, Neil Diamond is America personified...not just an East Coast/Rust Belt America...but all of it.

Both are avowed liberals...just in case some may think this is a conservative vs. liberal thing.

“He uses conservative language for progressive messages, and he delivers them through a populist mechanism — rock music,” Christopher Borick, a professor at Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College who teaches a class on Springsteen, told POLITICO. “He references flags; he references Jesus; he references God. His approach to lyrics, from a political sense, often uses conservative-tinged words that might resonate with voters who are by no means liberal.”

What does it mean to be liberal - in Russia, in Iran, in China, in Afghanistan?

Eric, Springsteen, Dylan, "decent song-writing"??!! That's like saying Lebron James and Michael Jordan are decent basketball players. You need to give a listen bro. Try Tangled up in Blue and maybe Incident on 57th Street. Tangled may be the best constructed song of all time, and I promise if you listen to Incident with your eyes closed, you'll be transported to a fire escape in Spanish Harlem circa 1973. A video for this song would be superfluous - he paints the picture in broad strokes and fine detail all at once. Republican Bob

This article sums up a major cause of the crisis in American politics today--particularly the politics of the Right (and, to a lesser extent, the Left). It's the ease with which Conservatives create new narratives in order to contort objective realities into their worldview. Don't like the fact that your favorite musician believes in a strong government to protect people? Don't like that his song, Sinaloa Cowboys paints illegal aliens in a sympathetic light? Don't like the fact that Ghost of Tom Joad discusses poverty?

No problem. Rather than think critically about a different perspective, just decide to "embrace it as it fits with [your] way of thinking"

He's vastly over-rated. His singing is horrible and his playing amateurish. I love how the media cherry picks a few people and tries to claim that every single conservative likes Springsteen. They must be desperate.

Poor Republicans, they have so few artists to turn to that reflect their selfishness, greed, rich wannabe, go-along-to-get-ahead conformity and sycophancy to the rich (Ted Nugent?). Most American rock and folk songwriters are working class, promote and defend the working class. Yet, despite their relentless propaganda, the Republican Party has historically NEVER represented the working class. Songwriters like Dylan, Springsteen, and Taylor all admired artists of the people like Woody Guthrie or Peter Seeger, both strident pro-union, civil rights activists.

However, today's Conservative Republicans have never been more pro-rich, anti-poor, anti-worker with their top priority of protecting, defending, and promoting more tax cuts for the rich with increased tax burdens placed upon the working class. Further promoted by all of the GOP's pathetic presidential candidates are the divisive culture issues: anti-women's rights and anti-women's health; anti-minorities; anti-immigrant; anti-union; anti-education; anti-liberal; anti-gay; anti-environmentalists; pro-pollution via the energy and chemical companies; pro-war mongering and war profiteering; pro-corporate profits; pro-religious bigotry; pro-materialism; pro-guns; pro-US militaristic or capitalistic unilaterialism, etc.

Republicans are the big phonies, the sunshine patriots, the bumper sticker/lapel pin patriots, those that wrap themselves in the US flag that few have militarily served; the faux Christians who care only about themselves or those that look or at least sound like them; the faux populists who represent a growing minority of bigoted, narrow-minded whites for whom even a moderate is a threat.

Recall that Reagan used the "Born in the USA" song without actually listening to the lyrics that protested the waste of American soldiers in the senseless Vietnam War. Republicans are masters of stagecraft. Reagan, a B-movie actor, was particularly good at it by making sure that he was photographed in front great American icons--flags, the Statue of Liberty, fighter aircraft, etc. George Bush also tried to mimic Reagan with that same American patriotism phoniness. Hypocritically both Reagan and GW Bush were big draft-dodgers and avoided active military service yet wanted to appear the American hero whether as a movie war hero or as central casting, swaggering, faux fighter pilot in flight suit landing on a costly-arraigned aircraft carrier festooned with "Mission Accomplished" for a mission that others would needless fight for over eight years more based upon lies and manipulated intelligence, oil and corporate greed.

Springsteen like most artists is liberal--open minded and not bigoted, and he has often been interviewed and always shows that same concern for the good of the average guy and their families. Like many people, he wants the country as a whole to do better, to pull together for the commion good and an equality of opportunity and responsibility. We know he opposed the Bush-Cheney regime's heavy-handed, unilaterialism that multipled America's enemies a thousand-fold. He is pro-union, pro-farmer, and working class American which alone should make him an enemy of the Reich-wing Republicans.

Lastly, it is what people do in their lives, how they treat others, actually living one's faith even if it hurts, standing up to bullies, questioning authority and speaking truth to power and having a concern for the overall good of the country not just those that look and sound like we do. One can be a fan of Jesus while living an ungodly life. One thing that Springsteen knows is that you cannot fool God.

Liberals are the most venomous, hateful, vile, bigoted persons you will ever meet - if you don't agree with their every single utterance or belief. Liberals will tell you, their factional infighting is ugly even amongst themselves.

Take for example the bigoted hatred the Liberals display against a man for his religious beliefs - Mitt Romney.

The Democrats will tell you that if you don't vote for Obama and agree with everything he and his political party says - then you're a "waacist" while in the same breath uttering contemptible bigotry against another man for his religious beliefs.

^ Bobric1110 ^ is so right. "Incident on 57th Street" is breathtaking. I never, never tire of listening to it.

But now my real point: This whole piece buys standard conventions that are incorrect -- and cites statements from people who show a lack of understanding. Evan Sayet says "But his lyrics, over and over again, mention some of the fundamentals of conservatism — that though life is horrible, it’s not horrible enough for you to need a handout. When he talks about interpersonal relationships, or the responsibilities we have, one on one … he almost — unconscious to himself — has a conservative message.”

No, let's just say it may be unconscious to Mr. Sayet, but Springsteen talks about liberal messages. Sayet sadly misrepresents them here. The same for Mike Brownfield, who says "“When I listen to ‘Born to Run,’ I’m hearing about a man who is struggling to find happiness, not a song about someone who is trying to find happiness and wants the government to step in," Liberals (like me) and conservatives actually have always had more in common than these gentlemen seem to comprehend. There are conservative pundits who create straw men and then incite people to rail or fight against them. But they're straw men. Liberals don't necessarily believe what you think they may.

And that's just off the top of my head -- and that's just musicians. I could list a ton of actors off the top of my head.

And how pathetic of you to get validation of your irrational beliefs just because someone with a bunch of makeup and an instrument (maybe) might believe them. I also love how pathetic people like you take ownership of performers who have no stated political beliefs.

Never had a #1 hit? Neither did Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, or the Grateful Dead, among others. But he did have seven number 1 albums, though. Even so, that's not the point.

I think the liberal/conservative dichotomy that this country is stuck on reveals its limitations in articles like this. There are other continuums (continuae?), you know. In Springsteen's case it isn't left-right, it's top-bottom. Springsteen's focus has throughout his career been on the guys (and it is mostly men) on the bottom who have struggled to make it. When they were young, they had swagger and dreams, they worked in factories and on highway crews, they were drafted or arrested, or became cops. They had love/hate realtionships with their fathers. They got married, got divorced, got fired, lost homes, and often felt abandoned or betrayed by their government. They were going to happen to life, but instead life happened to them. There's a reason why the appeal to both the 99% and the Tea Party (and those of us who are affiliated with neither).

But he did not sing about "job creators" or the factory owners, or even the boss or foreman -- his perspective is from the ground up. Any politician that would like to claim an affilation would have to have policies that also addressed this ground level.

That's my problem with the current version of Springsteen - the lyrics of his youth - Incident on 57th Street, Jungleland, Thunder Road have turned into the banality of "Waitin' on a Sunny Day". He has become impressed with his self-created role of a latter day Woody Guthrie.